ALLEGED DEFAMATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21596, 14 September 1933, Page 6

ALLEGED DEFAMATION

SffDNEY POLITICAI SPEECH

SUIT AGAINST PREMIER W

VERDICT FOR DEFENDANT

A jury of four in the Supreme Court in Sydney last week, after a three days' trial, returned a verdict for defendant# —the Premier of New South Wales, ||r Mr. B. S. B. Stevens—in the action brought against him for alleged defamation by Mr. John Chambers Eldridge, If ex-M.P., who claimed £SOOO damages. A stay of proceedings was granted, with a view to an appeal. y:

The jury, which returned to Court after a retirement of 20 minutes, based its verdict on the ground that the words complained of, if uttered, were not defamatory. The foreman "added that the jury considered that the'witnesses for the plaintiff were most unreliable.

Mr. A. H. J. Watts, K.C., leading counsel for plaintiff, asked for & stay of proceedings, on the grounds that tbe jury's verdict was unreasonable and that the words were defamatory. Mr. Curtis, K.C., second counsel for the dofendant, resisted the application. He said that the case was one of political significance, and . there was a danger*that a stay of proceedings would create a wrong public impression. Mr. Justice James: There is tha statement that the plaintiff was trying to convert the electors to the blaspheifaous doctrines of Communism. The jury have foand that that is not defamatory. I think it is a matter for the Full Court. I will allow the application on the usual terms. The statements upon which the plaintiff sued were contained in a broadcast address by the defendant during the last New South Wales election, when the litigants were rival candidates for the suburban -electorate of Croydon. The statements took the form of criticism of an address given in the House of Representatives by the plaintiff, during his representation of the electorate of Martin. In that address the plaintiff had referred to a manifesto which wis issued by leaders of churches in South Australia.

Plaintiff's speech was intended as a reply to the churches' statement, condemning Mr. Lang and the Lang plan. One sentence in the speech ran:— /'Having listened to this statement, we are entitled 1 to say that, with distress and poverty throughout this country, the churches are nothing but the harlots of Mammon." Under crossexamination, Mr. Eldridge said that he meant that the churches, because they ignored the poor and truckled to the rich, were prostituting religion to wealth. He said he was not ashamed of the expression in the sense in which he used it. -

Evidence was given that Mr. Stevens had stated, inter alia,, that Mr. Eldridge was " a man seeking to convert the electors pf Croydon to the blasphemous and unthinkable doctrines of Communism."

According to plaintiff's counsel, the effect of defendant's 1 attack was to "eliminate" plaintiff from the contest, and as it was broadcasted throughout the electorate, it caused him much pain and public humiliation. On behalf of the defendant a~plea of not guilty was filed, but no evidence was given. * >